Tag Archives: Real Madrid

Update: The play can be seen on the ESPN360 replay at 1hour 9 min than a replay 40 seconds later. There is no timer shown on the ESPN360 replay so I cant tell you when it was, but it feels around the 60th min…

So Andrea Canales of Goal.com has an article out that made made solely because of the run Marvell Wynne had when he burned the shocked Christiano Ronaldo. He recounts a conversation with a typical European biased soccer fan:

“But although Marvell can’t match up in technique with a lot of skilled players, I’d put his speed on par with anyone out there.”
I didn’t realize I’d made such an earth-shattering statement, but my companion stared at me, agape.
“You mean anyone in MLS, right?” He clarified for me.
I shook my head. “No, I think Marvell is up there with any soccer player in the world, speed-wise.”
The look on the face of this press box acquaintance changed from surprise to one of pity.
“Well,” he said carefully, “You haven’t covered enough games abroad, then. You don’t get a sense of how fast these top European players are from the television. They’re incredible. Cristiano Ronaldo is amazingly fast. He’d leave Marvell in the dust.”
Now it was my turn to be skeptical. “Really? I mean, of course Cristiano Ronaldo is faster with the ball at his feet than Marvell in the same situation. Ronaldo’s ball control is awesome. But in a game, if Ronaldo has the ball at his feet, Marvell doesn’t, so he can catch him, or at least stay with him.”
Even as I spoke, I suddenly had the feeling that by starting to lean on unprovable hypotheticals, our debate was sinking to “My dad can beat up your dad” territory.
Yet my opponent wasn’t averse to that. “Let me tell you,” he stated. “If they ran a fifty-yard dash, Cristiano Ronaldo would beat Marvell Wynne by five yards. You think Wynne’s really fast because all you see him against is MLS competition. You just haven’t seen enough of what top soccer is really about.”

He then goes on to mention how that common perception was shattered in front of the entire world last night:

But the odds that I’d feel any vindication depended on either those timed runs, or Wynne and Ronaldo playing against each other, which didn’t look to happen any time soon.
Except it did last night.
Sure, I watched the friendly between Real Madrid and Toronto FC for many of the reasons that thousands of others did – to see how the new galacticos were meshing. Kaka, Karim Benzema, Raul, Cristiano Ronaldo and others on the Madrid squad were amazing to view. Their technique was far above that of the Toronto squad, as their combination passes befuddled the defense repeatedly. Especially for preseason, the athleticism of the Real Madrid players was also impressive.
However, I had my eye on one match-up in particular. Again and again, Wynne defended against Ronaldo.
If anyone who watched the game last night believes he’d ever be left behind by five yards in a short sprint race between the two, they are absolutely blinded by MLS hatred.
Ronaldo has an impressive bag of tricks in his arsenal, and versus Wynne, he had to rely on the ones other than speed, because he simply couldn’t use that to shake Wynne.

Its little things like this that can help break the MLS steroytype and help make it into a top league. This is also great exposure for Wynne who may get looks from Eurpoean teams after seeing his speed and considering his youth. Wynee has a chance to make the US world cup team for next year having already made an appearnce in qualifying. Check out the rest of the article here.

Real Madrid’s new stars were all on show in their impressive 5-1 win over Toronto FC. Goals were scored by Raul at 13′ and 26′, Ronaldo at 18′, Benzema at 65′, and Robben at 85′ for Madrid. For Toronto the lone goal was scored by Gala at 75′. Kaka was all over the field while he was in taking a few shots and Xabi Alonso subbed in early in the second half for Ronaldo.

There was a FK from the top of the box for Madrid late in the first half that Ronaldo lined up to take and the crowd got very excited with camera flashes going off all over. Much to the dismay of the fans an other Madrid player, Guti, standing right next to the ball crept up and tried to sneak one in unsuccessfully while all attention was on Ronaldo. Needless to say the crowd was very unhappy. The Ronaldo goal was not too impressive and probably should have been saved but the crowd was very pleased to see a Ronaldo goal anyway…

Later in the game Ronaldo was chasing down a lead pass up the sideline and seems to have a clear path to the goal when out of nowhere Marvell Wynne just flew past him from out of nowhere and took the ball away. An extremely impressive play by Wynne against the worlds most expensive player. Wynne has made an appearance with the National Team this year and is a young player that we expect to have major impact in the future, and possibly make the World Cup Team.

Who did you think looked good? What did you think of all the attackers for Real Madrid?

UPDATE: 5-1 Final for Real Madrid on Raul goals in 13th and 25th min, Ronaldo goal in the 19th min, Benzema goal in 66th min, and Robben in 86th min! Alonso subbed in for Ronaldo at 62nd min. Toronto goal in 76th min by Gala.

Real Madrid may be debuting their new star studded lineup in the MLS on ESPN tonight:

“According to AS, Madrid and Pellegrini are not obliged by the contract of their tour to field all their megastar signings but the Chilean trainer nevertheless is expected to summon, for the first time, the Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema attacking trident.

However, “El Ingeniero” would not guarantee who will be playing when he simply said during a press conference that there’s a “big possibility” Kaka and Xabi will debut as a Blanco in Friday’s friendly against Toronto FC.”